Just cuz I don't have to pack to go to this one doesn't mean it's gonna be less of a show. I'll be wearing my trademark kabuki style make-up, 8-inch platform heels, I'll be spitting blood and breathing fire and playing all my hits like "God of the Tundra" and "I Wanna Chew on Blubber All Night and Hunt Seal Every Day" -- oh wait! That's for my appearance later in the all eskimo KISS tribute band. Um, this'll be a book signing. But it'll be a damned cool one!

And all you folks in Akron, mark your calendars. I'll be speaking at the Akron Public Library on November 7th. More details as this story develops...

Before that I’ll be in New York City August 26-28 at the following locations:

So a wholelatta folks get to to see what all the fuss is about!!Have fun. You're such a busy guy -- are you making progress on your new book laptop/airport style?Also--cool tip for travel--just wet your handkerchief, wring it out and place it around top of shoulders/back of neck under your shirt.You will feel so delightfully cool--no matter how long that airplane is lined up on the runway (or whatever stagnant situation you might find yourself in).Take good care of yourself.

venerable m, Brad has not added Tim's group to his public schedule. But if he is in the area, he might show up in room 308 at the student center at 11:00 AM on Sundays to sit and instruct or speak. Unless ken wilber is already booked.

Interesting SG article the Porno Buddhistsorry to hear how humanly the sangha brethren are behavingoneupmanship is alive and well and duking it out on the internet: this is what comes from not sitting long enough with something irksome in the craw until it dissolves...better than putting those bloggin fingers to whining and complaining... but it does all of us a big favor. Because all of us get to see that no matter whose dharma heir you are you can be a dharma err too--in the blink of an eye you can fall from practice even if you've been practicing for years.And what happens if you fall from practice? You just get back on the zafu you fell off of.While emotions clearly are running high... as indicated by various postings one has to askwhat really has changed?Aren't all the dharma heirs lives pretty much the same now as they were before the announcement of a named successor was made?

Interesting to note Nishijima Roshi's distinction between his Dharma successors, of which there are many, and his named Dogen Sangha International successor (of which there can only be one). What are the many in a flap about?

Aren't the various dharma successors all engaged in various enterprises--I mean, don't most of them run sanghas or sitting groups or teach in one capacity or another?

Where is the confidence among the various dharma successors that each has already gotten all there is to get, namely 'nothing', the big Nothing: there is no more.

Whatever 'extra' the named Dogen Sangha International successor might get handed is just a bigger helping of 'nothing' and gets given, after all, to 'nobody.'

If the named successor were big headed it could result in a big headache indeed.

Well, I just subscribed to the suicide girls website. In his current incarnation, I don't believe that brad is participating in any official wrongdoing. I will need some more time to explore the website in detail. I will set up a paypal donation site soon that designate my official status as the supreme commander of Buddhist Online Morality.

Funny how people can read about a bodhisattva visting taverns and houses of prostitution to save the customers and think, "how wonderful!" But someone tries something like that in real life and they're the "Porno Buddhist." Back in the Fifties and Sixties Zen had a reputation of being wild and free. True, this was a misunderstanding on the part of Westerners. But when I look at current photos of Zen teachers and their students, everyone looks constipated. I wonder how things changed so quickly.

Maybe Brad should take the time to fess up and give the real objections that the other DS:I sangha teachers have given. Brad is giving out negative spin on the other dharma heirs, so people here might like to take a few moments to find out the truth.

Who made this public? Well, that would be a certain current head of DS:I who published a private email on his blog.

Several deluded zen zealots get mentally distracted and die within these circumstances - but unfortunately get reborn instantly and continue to suffer through a billions aeons of uncontrolled envy and anger.

@Mysterion: Promise to stop deleting your posts, you can't get rid of your bad karma. Publish and be embarrassed.

An Akron lady notices the copy of SD and SU laying on my lap and asks me what it is about.. Umm, it is about a punk rock musician from Wadsworth who moves to Japan to work for the Godzilla movie guys and becomes a Zen Priest.. Oh, you made that up she tells me.

What a tempest in a teapot! I've only been studying Buddhism deeply for about 3 years, and casually for about 10, so I welcome any insight that helps. Brad writes where he can be read.

Brad is what Buddhism needs to succeed in modern america. Not everyone can go off and join a monastery, or sit for hours upon hours every week, or go to retreats several times a year. Some of us have to try to sit for a half hour between one thing and another, on a folded up bed pillow, not-staring at the ball of cat hair on the bedroom carpet.

Many of these comments remind me of how various news programs would have shows decrying media involvement in the OJ Simpson trial. The whole show would be full of media personalities saying, "is the media somehow responsible for all this media frenzy?"

WE are the ones making the tempest in the teapot, every single one of us reading Brad's articles and responding, positively, negatively...it doesnt matter what side we fall on.

The idiot who comes on to put down the idiot with an axe to grind against Brad is doing the same thing...same as me...i am also an idiot.

" funny how people can read about a bodhisattva visting taverns and houses of prostitution to save the customers and think, "how wonderful!" But someone tries something like that in real life and they're the "Porno Buddhist." "

it's probablybecause in the old stories the bodhisatva wasn't being paid by the whorehouses to write articles for them.

A student, who was obviously not able to grasp a lecture, once said to his Zen teacher: "But the Buddha said..."

The Zen teacher said: "First of all, we don't know what the Buddha said or if he actually ever lived. Then it is the question whether you are my student or a scholar. And finally, this is a lineage teaching, not a dogmatic teaching."